photo credit: ralphbijker

Today we went on our biweekly shopping trip to Trader Joes.

I am pissed!

Our grocery bills have been inching up for a little while now but dammit if this didn’t take the cake!  Now, granted we have been out of town so we didn’t go food shopping for a week or so before the trip but, now a week after returning we had nothing in the pantry, well we did but not the basics.  So we needed to buy all the basics and goodies that keeps our pantry stocked to get us through the next 2 weeks.

Back in January our grocery bill was $99 at Trader Joes.  Today that same bill is $247.07.

Color me just a little confused and, well just pissed off!  This doesn’t even include the fruits and vegetables as we have those delivered by Washington Green Grocer at $42.75 for a large organic box.

This is where I start to balance health vs. my pocket book as I’m sure so many of you do already.  On one hand I could just say screw it an go back to Shoppers and deal with their less than fresh, often spoiled non-organic foods but I just don’t feel that I should have to sacrifice health for my pocket book.  Our grocery budget is $350 for the month.  That leaves just over $100 left for anything grocery related.  And Im not saying that we can’t go over the budget but after July’s $650 grocery bill, we had to cut back on the random trips.

So what am I going to do?

Well, for one I think that we have to develop an actual list of items that are bonafide staples in our house.  We sort of know what we want but we are the type to try something new every time we go to Whole Foods or Trader Joes which switches things up a bit.  We aren’t brand loyalists but we really only shop at Whole Foods and Trader Joes at this point because we are being more health conscious and with the recent increases in grocery prices, we might as well shop there anyway.

Here’s the plan:

1.  Make a list of staples and adhere to that list.

2.  Make sure that list of staples when totaled keeps us within our budget

3.  Get Evert bags because we spend WAY too much money on fruits and veggies only to have them spoil quickly before the weekend gets here.  We end up having to go to the supermarket often during the week because the spoil too quickly.

4.  Try to use EVERYTHING in the pantry before running to the supermarket.  By everything I mean anything that can be used to make up a meal.  I think we are so used to certain foods that if those aren’t stocked then we feel that we have nothing to eat.

Here’s the grocery receipt:

$#@%@%

*sigh*

What say you: How are you managing the fast rising costs of groceries?  Can you share any tips with me?